Many occasions exist in which legal entry into a locked vehicle is desired or necessary without the use of a key. This can occur because the keys may have been left inside the vehicle with the doors locked, or a malfunction in an electronic door locking mechanism, or a key breaking off in the lock. In other instances, locked and illegally parked vehicles may have to be entered by police or tow truck operators to enable the vehicle to be towed away. In still other instances, it may be necessary for legal authorities to enter locked vehicles to make legal searches for contraband or explosives, to investigate crimes or in some cases, to enable the automobiles to be moved out of the way of other vehicles in the case of emergencies and natural disasters.
Tools for opening locked vehicle doors are well known and have been in use for a long time. They run the range from a simple bent coat hanger to highly specialized tools such as those formed for a specific vehicle type and model. While a dealer may have access to a set of keys for a particular type of vehicle, it is usually not practical to call a dealer when a vehicle door is locked. More often, an automotive road side service, locksmith, or law enforcement officer responds to such situations and uses tools designed for insertion into the door of the vehicle and interface with the internal locking mechanism to unlock the door. Typically the individuals using such tools have some knowledge of the locking mechanism of a vehicle and some training in using specialized tools in unlocking vehicle doors. A common tool for such door unlocking linkage manipulation known as the “Slim Jim” has been used for many years. By slipping this tool between the doors weather stripping and window, the lock linkage can be manipulated to open the lock.
Over the last few decades, technological advances in cars is making unlocking doors from outside the vehicle more challenging. Improved door construction quality is making it more difficult to insert unlocking tools into the door cavity. Furthermore, adding air bags into the door cavity and additional wiring makes door lock manipulation inside the door cavity more difficult. Some vehicles today employ cables rather than metal rods to operate the lock mechanisms which cannot be effectively operated by unlocking tools. Others may have electrically operated door locks which use electrical switches of some type, including slide switches on the inside door panel or arm rest, or what otherwise appear to be conventional push-pull door lock buttons. With such type of electrically-actuated door locks, there are generally no linkages within the vehicle doors which can be manipulated by any type of externally-inserted mechanical implement. To the contrary, to unlock vehicle doors having electrically-actuated door locks, it is generally necessary to operate the door lock switches on the inside door panels.
In response to such advances and challenges, tools know as “long reach tools” have been developed to work vehicle locking mechanisms inside the passenger compartment rather than from inside the door cavity. One such tool shown in FIG. 1 is a long solid rod 10 having a handle 12 on one end which is grasped by the user to manipulate the rod. The rod has a uniform circular cross section of ¼ inch along its entire length having a bend 14 at the mid-section and a shaped bent tip 16. The entire rod length may be painted with a glow in the dark paint for use at night time or in dark locations. FIG. 2 shows a similar rod 20 as shown in FIG. 1 but which is made of two shorter sections 22 and 24 of the same uniform rod ¼ inch diameter. The two rod sections are coupled together using a large external coupling 26. As shown with more particularity in FIG. 2a, each of the mating ends of the two ¼ inch rod sections 22 and 24 are threaded and screwed into an internal female threads of the coupling 26. FIG. 3 shows another similar tool 30, this also having two rods 32 and 34 of the same size. These rod sections 32 and 34 are ⅛th inch in diameter. They are again coupled together by a female coupling indicated by reference number 36.
While unlocking long reach tools described in the above paragraph are desirable, they all have their disadvantages and drawbacks. The tool 10 described in FIG. 1 is very long, typically four feet in length making it costly to ship or mail. Very long boxes are required which significantly adds to the cost of packing and shipping. Such a long tool is also difficult for the user such as roadside service personnel or law enforcement authorities to store and transport in a vehicle for daily use. The tool 20 in FIG. 2 uses a large external coupler 26 which can be difficult to insert between a car door and weather stripping, potentially damaging the car paint or the weather stripping upon insertion between these two structures. This tool 20 and the tool 10 in FIG. 1 are also relatively rigid which, during use to unlock a vehicle door, can damage the door panels, dash board or seats. While the tool 30 in FIG. 3 addresses the desire for a “thin” tool to fit between the door and weather stripping, it is very flimsy and therefore may not possess sufficient strength over its length to transfer sufficient force to open the door locking mechanism. It also has the undesirable coupler.
As such, it is still necessary to have a simple and effective unlocking tool that allows the user to unlock a door in a short time thus allowing the user to proceed to assist others.